We met Grandma and Grandpa P. at the diner up the street for lunch, then headed to the conservatory to see the butterflies. Wesley had a great time! As soon as you go in the conservatory door, you are met with a whole bunch of steps. Wesley climbed them all (with OSB in one hand) and said "Good job!" when he got to the top. While Daddy bought our tickets, Wesley practiced the fine art of sticking one's head through bars on a railing without getting one's head stuck. He also admired the large glass sculptures below - although he thought they were big flowers.
Our next stop on the tour was a kids area they have set up. It's full of all sorts of neat ways for young children to learn about butterflies. There was a cocoon tunnel to crawl through, a swinging chair (I forget what that was supposed to represent), caterpillar and butterfly picture books, a mural, puppets and lots of other stuff. Wesley really liked the caterpillar puppets. He even dropped OSB to play with them. We tried to buy him one as we were leaving, but they were out of them at the gift shop. Thank goodness for the Internet. I have strong feeling that the Easter Bunny may somehow deliver a new caterpillar friend. Ever the librarian's son, Wesley was also quite taken with the books - especially The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I read it. Daddy read it. Grandma read it. Grandpa read it. I
tried to read Waiting for Wings to him, but he only wanted the caterpillar.
Grandpa has a butterfly on his head (guess who watches too much Laurie Berkner?)
Once we got into the conservatory proper, Wesley saw so many new things. One of the first things we encountered was a small waterfall. Wesley knows the word waterfall because one of his books has a picture of a waterfall in it, plus I'm certain Dora has at least one adventure that features a waterfall. It took us a really long time to get Wesley past the waterfall and on to other things.
Wow! Look at the water!
Really. Look! It's water!
The section of the conservatory that housed the butterflies was pretty darn cool too. On our
way to that room, we passed through an exhibit that explained the life cycle of butterflies. Wesley would look at the pictures and say "Caterpillar. Butterfly." Grandma said that if Wesley managed to say "chrysalis" she was going to enroll him in kindergarten right then! Wesley saw a lot of 'flies but again, what really kept him involved was the stairs and ramps. He was so busy walking around that he missed the butterfly that landed on my head! Wesley really liked the glass sculptures in the pond too. He thought they were balls, but thankfully he didn't try to climb in and play with them. We might have to take a second trip to visit the butterflies this spring. It was definitely a great way to spend the afternoon.
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